Sunscreen
by Ivy Leaves
Summary: I've done it again. A visit to Tyler's country club is rational, what with SATs in two months and it a perfectly nice Saturday afternoon, but things can be a little, well, weird. PG for no good reason, General because I don't know what it is except weird.


Sunscreen

**Sunscreen**

** **

"Cool car," were Jamie's first words as he hopped into the back of the yellow Jeep next with Hank. "I like, Connell."

"I sold the Elbow. After your little gas stunt the mileage went way up," scowled Tyler as he pulled out of the driveway of Jamie's house. "And this was cheap."

"Look at it this way, it'll be great to go to college in," Jamie grinned.

"Don't talk to me about college or SATs," begged Tyler. Hank nodded in response. "The first ones are in October and I am studying, like, day and night."

"Dudes, it's only July. You've got two more months. I'm sure you overachievers will ace it anyway, so let's go to the pool and relax, please?" Jamie leaned back with his hands behind his head. "See? Sun."

"You don't have to take them for another year," Hank reminded Jamie. "Don't brag."

"I'm not. I'm artistically pointing out that your fears are incorrect and useless," said Jamie most scholarly as they pulled to a stop in front of Val's house. "Is Val studying as much as you?"

Hank coughed. "She, um, has taken six practice tests and scored 799 on verbal on four of them. And her math score on three was 791. The other three it was 794."

"But Val's not good at math," Jamie noted. "I mean, why else would Tyler help her all the time at the station?"

"I guess somewhere along the way, those soulful looks drilled the vertical motion formula into Val's head along with Algebra II and Calculus, huh, Tyler?" teased Hank. Tyler scowled at him.

"Bug off, I tutored her."

"What'd you get in return?" Jamie asked slyly, leaning forward.

"She did my inventory duty," Tyler answered as the door to Val's house opened.

"And you helped her with it, didn't you?" Hank inquired.

"Well…yeah…but I don't mind tutoring her. It's summer and there's not much else to do at the station," said Tyler uncomfortably, shifting. Jamie cracked up.

"I'll bet you don't mind," he laughed. Tyler rolled his eyes, leaning over and opening the door for Val.

"Hey, guys! Cool car, Tyler." Repeating Jamie's words, he blonde slid into the front seat.

"Thanks. Hey, we're having a debate," Tyler said, turning to Jamie. "Rebel kid here thinks that we should stop studying for the SATs."

"Well, you should definitely relax," Val agreed, "but you shouldn't stop studying entirely."

"So whose side are you on?" Hank inquired. Val shrugged as Tyler turned the key in the ignition.

"Everyone's."

"Oh, you just have to be a perfect little neutralized person, don't you?" Jamie asked. Val grinned.

"Yep, that sounds about right." She smiled at Tyler.

"Did you know that the mass of Jupiter's moons put together is about the size of your denial about liking each other and that over fifty percent of car wrecks are caused by teens like you who are hopelessly obsessed with staring at each other?" cut in Jamie. Val turned to glare at him and Tyler glared at him in the rearview mirror.

"All right, never mind." Jamie held his hands up in mock defense. "Let's go pick up Caitie."

*

The Kingsport Country Club, or KCC as it was nicknamed, was a prestigious place, but it was also busy at two in the afternoon on a sunny Saturday when the five teens walked in. The regular pool was filled with laughing and running kids (who were constantly getting yelled at by the lifeguards), multiple of whom were clad in a dark blue swimsuit with yellow racing stripes down the side, the swim team official suit. The diving pool was crowded also, but less so because it was smaller and no one wanted to wait in a never-ending line for a turn, though quite a few were diving off of the wall on the side opposite the boards.

"Thank God for empty chairs," said Caitie as she sat on one of the three empty adjacent pool chairs, tilted the back further back so that she was lying down, and closed her eyes. The other four looked, surprised at her quickness, before Val grinned and followed suit.

"Oh, come on, aren't you going to swim?" Jamie groaned.

"Nope. Nice sun," Caitie said, "and I'm about as white as vanilla ice cream."

"I thought that was part of the Goth image," Jamie reminded her. "I thought you liked being pale. So you should come swimming." Caitie opened one eye then closed it against the sun.

"I do like being pale. Except when it's summer. Then I like getting a tan."

"You are hopeless," sighed the black-haired teen before stripping off his "Rebellion Is Good For The Soul" t-shirt and heading over to the diving well, Hank close behind.

"Great, I left my sunglasses in your car, Tyler. Do you trust a Goth with your keys?" Caitie asked.

"Catch."

Caitie neatly caught the keys and bounded off of the chair towards the gate. Val watched her go helplessly.

"But Caitie…" Oh well, the brunette was out the gate by now. Val turned to Tyler. "I don't suppose_ you'd _want to put sunscreen on my back, would you?" she asked, crestfallen.

"Um, sure. Where's the sunscreen?" Val handed him a yellow tube and he read the label. "SPF 30? You aren't going to get a very good tan, you know."

"I burn like a marshmallow over a fire," Val notified him. "You wouldn't think it, but in direct sun, I burn. Then I tan. So…either way, I end up crispy fried sometimes."

"Too bad." The massage of sunscreen began on her shoulders. "Oh well. You're just about the only person I know who stays tanned in the winter."

"My skin is sensitive, which means that although I burn easily in the summer, I also tan easily in the winter," explained Val as he worked down to her back. Great, now she was tingling with his touch. Sooner or later she would end up with goose bumps.

"Okay." He rubbed it into her skin a final time, then capped the bottle and allowed Val to regain her senses that had been lost in the contact of skin.

"You just going to sit here?" he asked, standing up.

"Yeah, I think. Maybe I can time how long it takes until my skin matches my suit," said Val with a smile. Tyler returned the smile, glancing at her pink tankini.

"I'll go make sure Jamie doesn't kill himself off the high dive," Tyler told her, pulling his t-shirt over his head.

"That might be a little difficult. I think he's attempting a flip." Val motioned to the diving board where Jamie had landed on his lower back. Tyler winced.

"Ah well. You know those punks. Crazy." His grin guaranteed that he was kidding.

"Crazier than you, at least, which is hard."

"Oh, shut up," Tyler said good-naturedly as he headed off. Val laughed and slid her sunglasses over her eyes as she turned over.

*

The cool droplets of water flinging over their bodies caused Val and Caitie to open their eyes and sit up to Jamie wringing his hair out on them.

"What now?" Caitie asked snappishly. Jamie gave her a baleful grin—or at least attempted to give her a baleful grin—as he replied.

"I want to challenge you to a diving contest," he said.

"Who, me? No way. I'm not diving," said Caitie, ruling herself out immediately.

"Val, you want to?"

Caitie sniggered, but was stopped by the questioning look from Jamie. "Never mind."

"You want to challenge me to a diving contest," repeated Val slowly, sliding her sunglasses up on her head to see him better. Jamie nodded with a proud grin.

"I learned a flip off of the low board."

Hank appeared behind the taller teen and coughed, "Pain, pain, pain."

Jamie slid a sharp gaze towards Hank before grinning. "Okay, well, it was painful, but I can do it now. You up for it?"

Caitie and Val exchanged a look before Val replied, "Definitely. Definitely up for it."

She got up from the chair, taking off her sunglasses completely.

"So, you know any dives?" Jamie asked. Val contemplated, tapping her finger on her chin.

"I'll try a dive off the high board," she said. "I'll probably land on my stomach, but, hey, c'est la vie." Val grinned and walked over to the diving board with Jamie tagging along behind her to see.

Caitie laughed and got up. "This I absolutely have got to see."

"Why? Has Val ever dove off the high dive before?" Hank questioned. Caitie shrugged.

"You'll see."

"You first," Val offered to Jamie. He grinned.

"Okay." After three little toddlers went, it was his turn.

"Jamie, you want me to do a diving approach or do we not have to?"

"A diving approach?" he asked, stopping in the middle of the board.

"Never mind, I'm not too great at them. Go ahead." Jamie shrugged and went to the end of the board.

His flip was actually pretty good, Val realized, especially if he had just started today. By the time he came up, she was on the ladder to the high dive.

"Good job. I don't know if I can beat that, what with just a dive and all," she yelled down as she reached the top and spun the lever to her preferred flexibility. Jamie got out and went over to the side the high board was on for a better vantage point.

Val breathed and took four steps with a hurdle on the end—apparently she had decided to do a diving approach after all. With a height off of the board of about three feet on her hurdle, she dove out.

And did a double somersault pike with a full twist, entering the water neatly. Everyone who could see was gaping except for Caitie, who was smiling a mysterious smile.

"So," Val said as she surfaced near the edge of the pool, stroking freestyle the last remaining stroke and folding her arms on the side of the pool, "did I win or not?"

Jamie's jaw was wide open.

"Yeah," said Tyler. "Sure, you won."

"Where'd you learn that?" Hank asked. Val shook the water out of her ear.

"Diving team, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth grade," she informed them. "We had a meet of ten country clubs and I came in second overall behind a kid a year older than I." She smiled.

"Is there anything you're not good at?" Jamie asked, regaining his speech.

"Math, soccer, hockey, ballet, tap, and computer class," Val read off, ticking them off on her fingers, "but Tyler helps me with math and I'm not going to be a computer freak and who really cares if I can't dance, kick a goal, or hit a puck?"

"Stop showing off," Jamie requested. Tyler reached down to help her out as Jamie rambled on about how the world was being taken over by overachievers.

"Good job," Tyler said. Val smiled.

"Thanks."

"Hey, can you do a back flip?" A kid around six asked, running up to her. Val shrugged.

"Sure."

"Can you do one?" he asked excitedly, jumping up and down in anticipation.

"Okay," she agreed. To Tyler, she directed, "The pressures of an overachieving life," in an almost perfect imitation of Jamie. Well, except for that she was female and he certainly wasn't.

"Stop mimicking me," he said in a rather tearful, false voice. Val rolled her blue eyes and headed to the diving board again, wringing her hair out. Tyler's eyes followed her.

"Oh dear," Hank said quietly. Tyler ripped his gaze towards his best friend.

"What?"

"You have got it bad. Really bad, man." Jamie cracked up at that.

"Really, really, really, really bad," corrected Jamie.

"Do you ever know when to stop?" Tyler asked. Jamie pretended to think about it.

"No."

"He just likes to pretend he's relatively human, but in actuality he's from an entirely different planet where they torture people by asking about their crushes," said Caitie.

"You're not going to tell Val, are you?" Tyler asked suspiciously, not having known that Caitie was listening in.

"Not if you tell her first," shrugged Caitie. "But I like to know stuff my best overachieving friend doesn't. So I'll consider not telling her…except I've known it a lot longer than her already…so…we'll see."

Tyler groaned. This was not a good thing.

*

Exactly thirty-four minutes and forty-six seconds later, Val was sitting on the edge of the pool, dangling her legs in the water, when Tyler sat down next to her.

"Hey," she greeted him.

"Hey." He stared into the water with a troubled look on his face. For some reason the busy pool area seemed much quieter.

"What's wrong?"

"When was the last time you were kissed?" Tyler asked suddenly. Val looked at him, taken aback.

"I don't know. A while ago." Val turned pink and studied her feet, which had stopped mindlessly kicking the water.

"Oh. Okay." They were both staring at the water now.

"What about you?" Val inquired. Tyler started then settled down, smoothing feathers ruffled in surprise with ease.

"A while ago, yeah." Their faces were equally pink now. The sound of the screaming kids had disappeared completely.

"Why?" Val asked.

"No reason."

"Oh."

More silence. Awkward, awkward, awkward silence. Then—

"Can I kiss you?" inquired Tyler suddenly, all in one deep breath. Val's eyes widened as she looked at him with evident surprise.

"What?"

"Can I kiss you?" he repeated slowly, face growing hotter.

"Um—well—yeah, sure," Val agreed. Their faces looked like ripe tomatoes.

"I can?" This was surreal. Unearthly and surreal, because this is what had happened in his dreams.

"Is that what I said?"

"Yes." Well, it was what he had thought he heard her say, but it might have been the hallucination of a madly crushing football player.

"Then that's what I meant," she said patiently. Tyler slowly leaned forward as she did and—

"Connell's got a girlfriend, Connell's got a girlfriend," chanted someone behind them. Val sat back up immediately as Tyler looked behind him.

"Zack, get back here!" he yelled at the kid who was rapidly fleeing. He turned to Val. "That was the club idiot, eleven-year-old Zachary Michael Taylor, who has a way of ruining everything," he explained. A smile played on Val's lips.

"Well, I think he's gone, and I'm just as serious as I was a minute before," she began, "so maybe we could try again. If you want."

"You honestly think I'd refuse?"

This time their lips connected, dancing around and into and in front of the other's lips, holding on before someone pushed them into the water.

"Zack, I mean it, stop right now," Tyler said to the grinning gangly eleven-year-old, whose damp brown hair stood up in untidy spikes on his head. The tan skin showed that the kid spent every day at the pool, but Tyler was willing to bet that once he got done with him, Zack wouldn't want to spend a day at the pool ever again.

"What, Connell wants to kiss his girlfriend?"

Tyler pushed himself out of the pool and stood in front of Zack, dripping, eight inches taller than the kid.

"You want to know what the Spreewell football players feel like when a game's over?" Tyler questioned threateningly. Zack looked up at Tyler, shook his head, and raced off.

Tyler turned around and offered a hand to Val. He should have guessed what was coming, but didn't until Val's arm was tugging him in with a splash.

"You're going to get it, you know that?" he spluttered. Val smiled.

"You have to catch me first," she taunted. Tyler sighed.

"What if I kiss you again?"

"Oh, sure, use bait," groaned Val. "You win against me in diving and you can kiss me."

"What about when I lose?" he asked. Val grinned again.

"Well, then you can kiss me anyway. Deal?"

"Deal."

Okay, I'm being a little bit excessive about these blurb fics, but live with it. Once I get all the new ideas strained from my mind, I might end up adding to current fics or starting *gasp* They Say I Love You! YAY! Everyone can rejoice! Or not…anyways, PLEASE review. With a cherry-flavored coconut on top? PLEASE?

---Ivy Leaves the Officially Insane (yes, I have been cleared by the American Board of Insanity to say that…*grin*)


End file.
